Who I am…

Long story short…

MBA

Gourmand

Long time customer of online food services

Someone who wants to help you make (and sell) the best product possible.

Short story long…

As a child during Halloween, I would come home from trick-or-treating, empty my bounty out on the floor and proceed to push aside candy corn, lollipops and bubble gum, leaving my beloved dark chocolate. I knew from the strange looks from my parents and brother, that my relationship with the sense of taste was a special one. I come from a long line of caterers and amazing home cooks who taught me at a very young age, the importance that food and taste experiences play in life and, thanks to a few rotten branches of our culinary family tree, how those experiences can go wrong.

I didn’t get exposed to the commercial importance of the taste experience though, until my father, after being laid off from his job, started a catering business. I watched first hand the flavor development process, the steps to improve quality and the never ending feedback loop between customer preference and food product design. I tested my own hand, selling cookies to my father for distribution and a (very) short stint making wedding cakes.

Though grounded in the heavy and warm flavors of the American South, my taste experiences grew with yearly visits to my Mother’s heavily Greek influenced home town and later trips to China, the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico and Japan. I continue to travel, explore, research and connect, with food being one of my primary motivators.

Taste is the most underrated of the senses, yet weighs so heavily on consumers’ purchasing decisions. A consumer’s impression of taste begins when they first hear a product’s name and continues through opening the package, seeing the product, smelling it, feeling the texture, taste, aftertaste and memories of the product. ... Continue reading →